Monday, November 10, 2014

"Socially I'm not a name, black and white got game If you came to the jam, well I'm glad you came See, nigga first was used back in the Deep South Fallin out between the dome of the white man's mouth It means that we will never grow, you know the word dummy Other niggas in the community think it's crummy But I don't, neither does the youth cause we em-brace adversity it goes right with the race And being that we use it as a term of endearment Niggas start to bug to the dome is where the fear went Now the little shorties say it all of the time And a whole bunch of niggas throw the word in they rhyme"

It centers around the fact that the n-word is used on social media over 500,000. times per day. (Mostly in the nigga form.) And the gist of the article seems to be that the word has become so ingrained in our culture---- and as a part of our modern day lexicon--- that banning it would be almost impossible.

"This season, the National Football League is attempting the impossible, a reasoned but dubious mission that has already tripped up an institution as venerable as the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, municipalities as large as New York City and countless parents of teenagers across the land. The goal: banning the n-word within the chalk-lined borders of its purview.

As with the previous attempts, the NFL’s “zero tolerance” policy — which gives referees leeway to issue a 15-yard penalty for a first offense and ejection for a second — comes with good intentions: to establish a field of play free of the most racially charged word in American history.

ABOUT THE N-WORD PROJECT: Following several incidents involving players using the n-word, the National Football League this year instructed game ofﬁcials to penalize players who used the word on the ﬁeld of play. The policy, though, was widely criticized as being heavy-handed and out of touch. As the league wrestled with the issue, a team of Washington Post journalists examined the history of this singular American word, its spread through popular culture and its place in the vernacular today.

But like the others, it is almost certainly doomed to fail; to be ignored, at best — or mocked and flouted, at worst.

If there is one thing certain about the modern n-word — a shifty organism that has managed to survive on these shores for hundreds of years by lurking in dark corners, altering its form, splitting off into a second specimen and constantly seeking out new hosts, all the while retaining its basic and vile DNA — it is that it defies black-and-white interpretations and hard-and-fast rules.

The word is too essential as an urban slang term to be placed in a casket and buried, as NAACP delegates attempted to do in a 2007 mock “funeral” for the word. It is too ingrained in youth culture to be eliminated from city streets, as the New York City Council attempted with a symbolic resolution banning the word the same year. And more than likely, it will prove too complex and nuanced to be policed by football referees wielding yellow flags and penalties. Never mind the troublesome optics of a group of mostly white NFL executives dictating the language rules of a majority-black player pool.

If anything, in 2014, it is the very notion of banning the n-word that appears dead and fit for burial. It was a long and noble fight, waged largely — but not exclusively — by an older generation for which the word is inseparable from the brutality into which it was born. If there is still a meaningful n-word debate left to have, it is over context, ownership and the degree to which it should be tethered to its awful history — or set free from it.

A word that is used 500,000 times a day on Twitter — as “nigga” is, according to search data on the social media analytics Web site Topsy.com — is almost by definition beyond banning. By comparison, “bro” and “dude” — two of the terms with which the n-word is synonymous to many people younger than 35 — are used 300,000 and 200,000 times, respectively. For many of this generation, the word is tossed around unthinkingly, no more impactful than a comma.

“It’s such a regular part of my vernacular. It’s a word I use every day,” said comedian/actor Tehran Von Ghasri, a 34-year-old D.C. native of African American and Iranian American heritage. “I’m a ‘nigga’ addict.”

Though the word has long been entrenched in American vernacular, by all accounts it is more prevalent than ever — expanding into new corners of the culture, showing up in places (college debate, Christian rap, video-game culture) where it would have been almost unimaginable a generation ago and no longer following any clear rules about who can say it and who can’t.

“People are integrating on a faster level today than ever before in history, [so] it’s unfathomable to me to think that with everything that we have crossing over, the language would not have crossed over as well,” Von Ghasri said. “I’m still uncomfortable with [a] white guy saying, ‘You’re a cool nigga.’ But in 25 years, I would hope that my kid’s not uncomfortable — because that white guy wouldn’t mean it in a demeaning, degrading way. He would mean it as a positive thing.”'

Wait a minute there big guy. It should never ever be cool for a white guy to use the word. EVER!

And that is my problem with this article. It attempts to mainstream the word or to show that because it is so popular among some people it eventually will be popular with everybody. At least publicly. ---I am pretty sure that it is already popular with certain people, privately.

It's great that you are a "nigga addict" Von, but please don't wish that on anyone else. Especially a white person, because, as you yourself stated; you are not comfortable with it. And you shouldn't be, and a white person should not be comfortable saying it. Unless they are an actor playing out a role where it is required or repeating the word in an official capacity such as in a court of law.

I agree that the word can't be banned, and attempting to do so would be silly. But, as is mentioned in the article, it can be policed.

I have never understood the need for some white folks to want to be able to use the word so much. "You people say it to each other all the time, what's the big deal if I use it"?

Ahhhm, you are not one of us; that's the big deal.

As I have stated before, I don't use the word in my conversation with my black friends, but unlike other folks of my generation, I am not as offended by it when young black men use it to each other or put it in their songs, etc.

I am not going to get hung up over a word.

I am more concerned with them getting an education; getting a job; and raising a family as responsible citizens. As far as I am concerned they can do all of those things while dropping the n-word when they hang with their boys.

"There are some who would say that debating the merits of the n-word is missing the bigger picture. The problem isn’t the n-word. The problem is racism. But it’s easier to fight a word than a complex, institutionalized system of oppression."

68 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Mr Field, Rev Mannining has NEVER told a lie. He is a prophet of great knowledge for pete's sake! I resent you calling him a liar.

I have been drinking Starbucks coffee everyday for over 30 years and I must say that lately their Lattes have been tasting peculiar. Also, I have noticed the daily customers who frequent Starbucks have become seeming lustful toward me, a disciplined Christian.

It always happened after they started drinking their coffee. They seem to get a devilish look on their faces like they were ready for an orgy.

Needless to say, a Christian like me became very distrubed. Btw, one of the daily customer's name is Field. Isn't that ironic?

this is my problem with the use of the N word...either it is forbidden or it's NOT..i cringe whenever i hear it or see it in print...i hear my nana telling me of her work as a domestic..in which neither she nor her husband were never referred to as Mr and Mrs...but they were often referred to as N...

how can you refer to yourself or you boy with the N word...but say a white person using the word is unacceptable...smh

Mr Field, it might be simple for you, but it's complicated for every 'true' American with sense.

That word has cost lives, gotten bm lynched, labeled Blacks as animals, and 3/5 of a human being. If Blacks want to keep that evil degrading word in circulation for themselves, then everyone can use it.

It is a word for all of humanity or it is not. No human has a lock on a racially 'divisive' evil word simply because it makes the 'user' evil themselves and consequently impacts the entire human race.

Either we are going to transcend racism or we are not. EVERYONE must do their utmost to end racism, including our dumb ass race who wants to continue using it while declaring that no one else can degrade Blacks but Blacks themselves.

AND then declare it is racist for others to use it. That is the most stupid kind of reasoning ever fabricated in the history of mankind.

Only the Satanic minded can think so pervertedly.

Please, have some dignity for yourself and for others.

No ifs ands and buts about it, that word is shameful and it's evil....period. It makes the soul cringe, and the heart darken and ever more callous.

Anon10:30pm, that link re: China's opinion of Obama has put the final nail in Obama's coffin as the weakest President ever.

However, it makes sense. Blacks have never really had much to stand on...NEVER....something about slavery that weakens the soul and kills the spirit distorts thinking...like an entire race degrading itself with the n-word and guarding it like it's precious from other races. Go figure.

I can't imagine anyone who can feel themselves as dignified and worthy...But there you have it...Field defends the word and its perversions.

Thank-you Anon for informing the site that I did not comment on anything about Vietnam yesterday. But I will address anything situation that I may offer my insight to. First and foremost I wish that the commenter that tread into areas that he has no knowledge of (the football head person). You were not there and with the flippant remarks you sprouted out, I doubt if you know any body that was.

The Black vet was on target in his comments. Just like now, a lot of governmental tallies were used to convey a certain message. The educational system of the 50s and 60s for Blacks in the South was grossly inadequate. In my public school we had 10-15 year old books that the whites had already used and abused. I could write a chapter on this subject but tonight I will try to stay focused on the toil that my people confronted in Vietnam.

Yes, as Anon commented. There was a program designed to increase the number of minorities in the military. Yes, the majority of Black males drafted and volenteers were sent in the combat arms. Yes, there was a period when we carried a heavier load in the dying. Overall this number was an embarrassment to a country that STILL DID NOT give full rights to men that sacrificed their lives. Check on the number of draft dodgers, student deferments, medical deferments and newly Canadian citizens. It doesn't take a whiz to see if you take this number of same race people... somebody took the load.

In closing again I was there and as a medic I know the demographic. Goggle Larry Armstrong, 159th Dust Off, 25th Infantry Division. I flew Dust-off for a year over 4,00 combat hours extracting too many DEAD and wounded Americans, Vietnamese (RVN), North Vietnamese, and Viet Cong.. So if you were not there, save your negative remarks for you beer drinking buddies.

Now at no time did I say that the whites not come strong to the battlefield. I was the sole Black medic on a helicopter with three other whites (2 pilots and crew-chief), so the bond of war was not unique. After the mission, I did gravitate to the Panther brothers. You had to have been there to fully believe the Brother Anon.

Todays wars are now the poor whites and hero seeking persons. The Black man has checked out on these wars. We are finding ourselves in a constant state of war. I am more afraid to go out at night than I was in the Nam. I got to deal with my people as well as the police... even at my old asz self. The vision of todays wars are that of the superiorly arm whites beating down third world countries and people. It a shame that like now compared to then, the same people are pumping wars that the poor and less educated must fight.

I haven't used the n word in over 15 years and like someone posted earlier it kinda throws me off to hear it. I couldn't watch The Boondocks because too many n-bombs flying even by Huey who is supposed to be the down militant brotha. The comic strip got by just fine without such ignorance. Always wondered why a smart brotha like Aaron McGruder had to stoop to such depths.

"Wow, these black UK Socialists know a lot about the American political system and AAs. Yet, when PC is accused of being a Democrat, he claims to be disinterested in Dem/Repub party action because he is a Socialist....Isn't that weird?"

No I'm sorry that is not weird, that is entirely logical.

Democrats are old-school conservatives, Republicans are insane extremist conservatives. As a Socialist I could ever support or vote for either. But that does not mean that I am not interested in the dynamic of American politics and how it plays out.

Socialism is a way for the well-off to ease their consciences and preserve their position by giving the wealth of the less well-off to the poor. It is an alliance of the the High and Low against the middle.

As one who lives in New York City and rides the subway every day, I hear the word "nigger" (as well as its variant, "nigga") used by blacks every single day as the standard, go-to word for referring to other blacks in the third person. The only people recoiling from it here are white liberals, who seem predisposed to telling other people which words they may use in speech. (They also want to ban the word "Negro", although why they should want to do so is never clearly explained.) So yes, the war against the "n-word" is over, and you have lost, betrayed by your own children.

re: anonymous @ 8:05: I, too, ride the NYC subway and was about to make a very different comment. I've heard it applied to light-skinned friends (maybe Latinos) of young blacks as well as themselves. In a way I thought of that as positive, since it was clear it was being used to mean just "dude" or "guy" and would go the way of a lot of words that once had social sting. (Never mind the self-righteous "betrayed by your own children" crap) Seen another way, they were calling their light-skinned friends "honorary" blacks, including them as part of their own tribe.But our culture is in so many pieces now. I also think of the teary-eyed woman (of visibly mixed race, though ethnically black) who had campaigned in vain to ban "Huckleberry Finn" from her child's school library, because Twain's intentional use of the N word was nothing but hurtful and demeaning in her eyes. She had a point, and the unspoken one was that "Huckleberry" isn't a children's book, really. I wound up agreeing with her: think with what relish certain of her son's white classmates would have referring to "Nigger Jim" in class. Or would they be able to read the book but prevented from repeating its language? As I say, our culture is in pieces. The Promised Land still looms.

It was interesting when I found out nigra and nigger meant different things in the south. A nigra is a somewhat better status blah person. I always just attributed it to southerner's drawl but ya learn something new everyday.

I was going to recommend that Field read it if he hasn't already. But thinking about it he probably doesn't need to read a book to know about life on Philadelphia's Sixth Street.

For a European reader though, this is an astonishing book. The sheer idiocy of the 'war on drugs' and the way that the American judicial system is stacked against African American males from cradle to grave is well documented here.

PilotX, I was shocked to hear Afro-Caribbean men described as 'Negers' when I first arrived in Amsterdam. (I almost lamped somebody who tried it on me) but it turned out 'neger' just means 'black man' - no pejorative intended, and a black woman is a 'Negerine'.

This is a Dutch equivalent of the 'N word' it turned out - and that is 'Nikker'.

PC, I have read that book, (I think every criminal lawyer in Philly have) and you are right, it's a must read for anyone who wants to understand how the criminal justice system works in many urban areas.

Amazing how the mind of an Internet troll works.Either you are being deliberately obtuse or you are just stupid. I suspect the latter.

I will try this again: Why do some white people feel a need to use that word? Why can't black folks use it exclusively?

There are ethnic slurs that are thrown at other ethnic groups, and it is perfectly fine for them to use it among themselves. You don't see black folks making an issue of the fact that it is off limits to us as it should be.

"There are ethnic slurs that are thrown at other ethnic groups, and it is perfectly fine for them to use it among themselves."

It's like a fat person calling another fat person fat. They can do it, if you're skinny you can't. Young white males, AKA trolls, never seem to get this. they're still stuck on the "why do you get to have BET, we don't have WET". The stupid is strong among white racist trolls.

field negro said...There are ethnic slurs that are thrown at other ethnic groups, and it is perfectly fine for them to use it among themselves. You don't see black folks making an issue of the fact that it is off limits to us as it should be.

And when they get caught making those statements, they make the same excuses as clueless white republicans...

Field - the American colloquial word NIGGER is in essence a social class boundary marker unique and pertaining only to African-Americans. In the aftermath of institutionalized slavery in America the NEGRO population in America was generally split into two classes, poor Negroes and lower middle-class Negroes. Jim Crow and strictly enforced segregation prohibited the growth of the lower middle-class Negroes into the income level equal to middle-class whites.

Over the decades there have been many African-Americans who have been fortunate to have somehow become wealthy enough to be on an income level equal to the upper class white population. However, these individuals have been so few as not to even mark the start of any form of a demographic.

Those Negroes in the lower middle-class over the years have held strict barriers against their poor low class relatives many of which were not able to escape the smells and the corruptions of the black ghetto. They held the line against socializing and even inter-marrying between the poor class and the lower middle-class. Even in respect to employment there existed sharp differences between the two Negro classes. The low middle-class Negro population could be found in jobs such as the post office or in the automobile manufacturing industry, or truck drivers, or automobile mechanics, or in the building trades such as electrician or carpenters. On the other hand poor class Negros were confined to primarily day work or janitorial work, or as car wash workers or as movers,or other such heavy work laborers.

Heavy use of the word NIGGER has always been a hallmark of the residents of the black ghetto, particularly with those families who live in the ghetto's public housing tracts. Among African-Americans, black people who engage in frequent use of the word NIGGER signal that such persons are "HOMIES" or people who just recently migrated out from the south. As stated above the low middle-class African-Americans maintained a policy of complete avoidance of any Negroes who are regarded as "HOMIES".

Finally the widespread influence of Rap music which originated in the ghettoes of American cities has been the platform carrying the frequent use and enshrinement of the word NIGGER. Hence it is to be expected that all those fans who want to be black ghetto bad boys including whites would embrace the use of the NIGGER word to prove their authenticity. Following the migration of the word NIGGER, or in its hip form NIGGA, is first order exercise in American sociology from an academic point of view.

Bro or Sis Parvenue, you speak like you were there. The insight was concise and right on time, as well as truthful. There were lines that were not crossed and this was religiously adhered to. AT LEAST, in my neighborhood. The lower middle was the ones who used the first fair housing laws to buy homes in mass.

My family left Newsome Park in 1960 for a new Black housing development that is historical today (for us)- Scones Park in Aberdeen, Hampton, Va. Thank you John F. Kennedy.

Now we were to busy trying to move up in this new world of Civil Rights that the word "nigga" was taboo. The only time I heard the word was in going out into the majority world. My peers and I integrated the Jr. high Jefferson Davis Jr. High. That word used was so hurtful at the time because there was nothing you could do to soften the pain.

We had not many successes post Civil Right and I know that once a man feel good about himself it would be hard to harm him/her with words. In the 60/70s the word had sting. Today the sting is gone. Especially, since the ones calling you "nigga" are in deep pain. People calling you this name may be trying to make you feel less than. Thank you Parvenue for the insight.

Brother Field your posting of a military "real hero" makes the word "sacrifice" real. He paid the supreme price. Thank you for the reminder.

Anonymous ctrl+halt+del said...I've never believed that european americans are or can be offended by being called a redneck or cracker. That they feign any affects of discomfort from their use is disingenuous.

6:32 PM---------------You are exactly right. You see, they are part of the power structure; they know nothing about about being discriminated against because of their color. Blacks do.

On the other side of the coin of life, Blacks don't know what it's like to not be discriminated against. Therein lies the tremendous gulf between Blacks and Whites.

Field I see that crazy anon wanna be Afrikan is still here acting like the dumb white boy he is ! LMAO And speaking like a white boy discussing Afrikans in tones of U people LOL Field I am back in DC and having a ball in the courts!

Over the years I've asked many people not to use that word around me. Mostly white. Some black. I've been spending a lot of time watching comics on YouTube. Some black comics use it a lot. I don't think it's ok no matter what color you are. Of course it's worse if a white person uses it but it's just not cool for anyone due to it's ugly history.

Unbelievable how profound this discussion is in the 21st century. And though I say this tongue in cheek to the white commenters on this blog.....Good news per this excerpt from the Root.com, for which I would love FN's perspective: http://www.theroot.com/articles/culture/2014/11/the_n_word_isn_t_automatically_a_slur.html

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